Entries with the tag: michael sauer

Good evening folks. I hope you all enjoyed watching the first round of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft.

It was an interesting first round to say the least. Seeing Jordan Staal get traded to the Carolina Hurricanes to play alongside his brother Eric, having Malcolm Subban, Montreal Canadiens’ defenseman P.K. Subban’s younger brother, get drafted by the Boston Bruins, see Dallas Stars’ forward Mike Ribeiro go to the Washington Capitals with the Capitals giving up a valuable prospect in Cody Eakin while also having a trade between the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Philadelphia Flyers all made it an interesting day for the National Hockey League.

Of course, it was also interesting for the New York Rangers as the team took defenseman Brady Skjei with the 28th overall pick of the draft. Click here to read what the Rangers’ web site says about him.

With the success that the team has had with the likes of Ryan McDonagh and Michael Sauer (before he got hurt), it should not be surprising that the Rangers’ took another American-born defenseman. Central Scouting ranked him at No. 19 and said the following about him:

NOTES: Stay-at-home blueliner is best skater among defensemen in draft but needs to use his big frame better. Plus-10 for gold medalist U.S. team at World Under 18s. Will begin his college career at Minnesota in the fall.

Coming off a 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maplle Leafs, the New York Rangers will look to get back on track tonight against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Madison Square Garden.

Unfortunately, the team will be without Rangers’ defenseman Michael Sauer as he suffered a concussion when Leafs’ defenseman Dion Phaneuf flattened him on Monday night. With the team already missing Marc Staal, this is certainly a blow to the team’s lineup.

With that said, this is a lineup that thrives when they need to step up and one would have to expect the team to do the same tonight. The team’s defensemen will have to step up tonight against the likes of Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis, Steven Stamkos, Ryan Malone, and others.

With Sauer out, defenseman Anton Stralman will step in for the first time as a Blueshirt. Team head coach John Tortorella said the following to Rangers’ beat writer Andrew Gross yesterday:

“That comes with just not playing, it’s going to take some time as far as the tempo of the game. It’s very difficult when all you do is practice. We’re trying to play with pace and speed and it’ll take some time here. But that’s a concentration. We want him to defend. We know he has some offensive instincts. He’ll probably see some power play time along the way. But the key is just playing fast and trying to get within the tempo of the game as quickly as possible.”

This past Saturday, the Blueshirts won a hard fought game over these very same Lightning. With the Lightning coming off a 5-1 loss at the hands of the New York Islanders, you know they will come out and put forth a much better effort against a better Rangers' hockey club.
Hopefully, the Blueshirts will get back to "normal" and pick-up two more points on home ice.

The New York Rangers are starting to show the National Hockey League that for the first time in years, they have some real offensive depth.

The club’s offensive depth really came out last night in their 5-3 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes. The team had five different goal scorers in Marian Gaborik, Ryan Callahan, Ryan McDonagh, Sean Avery and Michael Sauer.

With the win, the Blueshirts improved to 14-5-3 on the season, good enough for fourth in the Eastern Conference. Believe it or not, the team is also just three points behind the Eastern Conference and NHL leading Pittsburgh Penguins.

For the Rangers, last night’s game could have easily been a trap game. It could have been one where the team played to the level of their opponent and missed the opportunity to pick up the two needed points.

Luckily, the Rangers reversed the trend and played a solid road game to pick up their fourth straight win. On the other side, it was the Hurricanes’ fifth straight loss and second under new head coach Kirk Muller.

With the way the New York Rangers are playing right now, this is the kind of attitude they should have when they take on the Carolina Hurricanes tonight in Raleigh.

Coming into tonight’s tilt, both teams are at opposite ends of the spectrum. The Blueshirts are 8-2 in their last 10 games, have won three straight and are 13-5-3 on the season, good enough for fifth place in the Eastern Conference.

At the other end of the spectrum are the Carolina Hurricanes. Having just fired Paul Maurice, Kirk Muller’s Hurricanes are second to last in the East with a 8-14-4 record and are 3-6-1 in their last 10 games.

The Blueshirts are coming off a game in which they beat the NHL’s best team in the Pittsburgh Penguins. As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, the Blueshirts got strong performances from the likes of Brad Richards, Marian Gaborik, Ryan Callahan, Carl Hagelin and Henrik Lundqvist.

The New York Rangers have started a bit of a winning streak after deating the Anaheim Ducks last night 2-1 in a shootout, giving them two straight wins in as many games.

Much like when the two clubs met in Sweden back in early October, this was an exciting game that saw timely goal scoring, some good physical play and great goaltending from Jonas Hiller and Henrik Lundqvist. The only thing that was different was that the Rangers turned the tables and won in a shootout on Marian Gaborik’s (yes, you read that right) goal.

Believe it or not, the Rangers probably could have won this game in the third period or even in overtime. Ryan Callahan had a clear breakaway in the third period and was absolutely stoned by Hiller. In overtime, the Rangers’ created a tic-tac-toe play with Gaborik, Michael Sauer and Ryan McDonagh but McDonagh put the puck wide over the net.

It is clear that while watching the New York Rangers so far this season, that there is something missing on their blue line and for the Rangers, it is defenseman Marc Staal.

Staal, an all-star defenseman last season for the Blueshirts, is a defenseman who can make smart outlet passes, use the body, block shots and contribute offense every once in awhile. He is a force on the blue line for the Blueshirts and when in the lineup, is the club’s best defenseman.

Without him, the team’s defensive corps has looked quite porous so far. They have been allowing a lot of shots, have been caught out of position several times and have also made many questionable decisions with the puck.

Luckily for the Blueshirts, their goaltending duo of Henrik Lundqvist and Martin Biron have been there to bail them out time and time again through the club’s first seven games. However, one has to wonder how long that will last without Staal in the lineup.

I was lucky enough to be at last night’s game between the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins and let me tell you, it was like watching two different games.

In the “first” game, the Rangers were flat, did not generate many scoring chances, had terrible defensive coverage and trailed 3-0. It could have been more if not for the solid goaltending of Rangers’ netminder Henrik Lundqvist.

The second game was the complete opposite. The Blueshirts played with passion, forechecked, threw pucks to the net and cashed in on their scoring opportunities. In this particular game, the Blueshirts outscored the Bruins 5-0.

In the end, it was a 5-3 Rangers’ victory in one of the most exciting games of the season at Madison Square Garden. It was a game in which the team trailed 3-2 with less than four minutes to go, only to score three goals in the final three minutes as Brandon Dubinsky tied the game, Michael Sauer scored the game winner and Derek Stepan sealed it with an empty netter.

Truth be told, may be it was expected that the Blueshirts would come out flat. They played an extremely tough and grueling game against the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday afternoon and were obviously out of synch and tired.

That is what the New York Rangers were able to do last night in their 3-2 shootout victory over the San Jose Sharks. It wasn’t pretty but the Blueshirts did not allow two deflection goals against to derail them en route to a victory.

At this point in the season, one point is not good enough for the Blueshirts and they showed that last night in San Jose. The team got goals from from Erik Christensen, Michael Sauer and in the shootout, got the winner from Brandon Dubinsky after Wojtek Wolski extended the shootout by scoring on Sharks’ netminder Antti Niemi in the third round of the skills competition.

The Blueshirts also got a terrific performance from their netminder Henrik Lundqvist. Lundqvist made 31 saves in 65 minutes and then went and stopped five of six shots in the shootout to pick up his 28th victory of the season.

Going into tonight’s game against the Washington Capitals, many New York Rangers’ pundits and fans did not know what to expect. Both parties worried about the team being without Marc Staal and Marian Gaborik as well as facing a potentially potent Capital’s offense.

May be this was a good thing as the Blueshirts dominated the Capitals on the scoreboardc in a 6-0 shutout victory. Believe it or not, this was the Rangers’ second shutout over the Capitals this season as the team shut them out back in December in a 7-0 romping.

Besides picking up the shutout, the best thing to come out of this game for the Rangers’ was their success on the power play. The team went 2-for-3 on the man advantage with goals from Erik Christensen (he had two goals and an assist in the game) and Derek Stepan. Believe it or not, the team’s power play has been a lot better of late and that is because they are being more aggresive and throwing more pucks on the net. Hopefully this trend will continue for the Blueshirts.

Speaking of Christensen, he played like a man on a mission tonight. He had three points, was around the net a lot, he had four shots on goal, played on the power play and was effective. Rangers’ head coach John Tortorella needs more of this from Christensen as the team continues to build their playoff push.

Before the NHL Lockout during 2004-05, the New York rangers were all about having veterans and experience on the roster, even if it came at the expense of a younger player or prospect.

Fast forward about seven years later and the Blueshirts have completely changed their philosophy. A lot of this, believe it or not, is due to general manager Glen Sather along with former head coach Tom Renney and new head coach John Tortorella.

“I wish he’d turn pro last year,” Tortorella said. “I hope he turns pro next year. I hope he’s with us. He’s a sophomore now and we’re anxious to get him involved in pro hockey. We think he’s got some good stuff to offer and we want to get him tracked up here with us as soon as possible.”

Going into the season, many hockey pundits and fans alike wondered how the New York Rangers’ defense would perform this season.

Well, almost halfway through the season, the team is currently eighth in the National Hockey League in goals against, averaging 2.55 goals against per game. Not bad for one of the youngest defensive corps in the NHL.

When it comes to the team’s defense, one constant has been Marc Staal. He blocks shots, breaks up plays, hits hard, makes great outlet passes and every once in awhile, shows that he has some offense in him. He has been the club’s best defenseman since joining the NHL in the 2007-08 season.

Defenseman Dan Girardi has also been one of the Rangers’ best defenseman since joining the team during the 2006-07 season. He logs a lot of ice, blocks a lot of shots, and has contributed 20 points (3 goals and 17 assists) from the blue line this season. When paired with Staal, they are one of the best shutdown pair of defensemen in the NHL.

At this point in the season, it is great to see that the New York Rangers are in the thick of the Eastern Conference early season playoff race and are getting solid performances spread throughout the season.

In this installment of “Blueshirts Week Ahead”, I’d like for you folks to keep an eye on several players as well as give you a look at who the team will be facing off against this week.

Players to Keep An Eye on

- Michael Del Zotto

It will be interesting to see how Del Zotto performs after being scratched last week in the team’s 5-3 win over the Ottawa Senators. Team head coach John Tortorella gave him a homework assignment to see how the club’s power play performed along with what he should be doing on defense.

Remember, Del Zotto is only in his second season and at the age of 20, still has a lot to learn.